Daily News from New York, New York • 652

4 'tSM i V' ir SDGD'OS-'Seein)- By OWEN FITZGERALD (First of two parts) Casino gambling for Coney Island remains a distant dream for its backers and a lingering nightmare for its opponents. 1 The State Legislature last weekend recessed without acting on pending bills needed to authorize a public vote on the sticky casino-style gambling question. That was a temporary setback for the there is a vacancy rate of 11 in the mid-income developments because of the area's negative image as a welfare dumping grounds. Some 14 of Coney Island's population get welfare, Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income. The city's Human Resources Administration said there were 2,575 welfare cases there last year.

The Social Security Administration reported 14,173 benefit recipients there in 1977. The major crime rate in the 60th Precinct fell 7 last year but the statistics included 18 murders, 52 rapes, 893 robberies, 348 assaults. 1,910 burglaries, 783 grand larcenies and 811 stolen autos. With such a load of social problems saddling Coney Island, it is no surprise for a man like Sheldon Plotnick to be an avid supporter of casinos for the area. Plotnick wears two hats, that of Democratic district leader for the 46th Assembly District and that of Community Development Committee chairman for Board 13.

"Casinos have to have a positive effect on Coney Island, if only to provide jobs. There has to be an economic turnabout because Coney is always getting the short end of the stick. We've been the dumping ground for welfare cases since the 1960s," he said. The middle-aged and elderly who made up 48 of the area's population a decade ago should have nothing to fear about casinos, if they don't gamble," he said. Unlike Atlantic City, where the casino real estate boom is chasing away the elderly, the poor and those on fixed incomes from that New Jersey seaside resort, Plotnick saw no such displacement occurring in Coney Island.

"Those people now live in the high-rise public and private developments," which aren't going to be leveled, he said. The crime picture can only get better because casinos will mean more city police and private security personnel oh patrol, he felt. Sometime rivals united Two men, long identified with Coney Island causes and not always allies on local issues, are vocal advocates for Coney Island casino gambling: Lou Powsner speaks for the Coney Island pro-gambling forces. They now fully expect state lawmakers to approve a referendum amending the State Constitution When they convene in the fall, in time to place the issue on- the Nov. 6 general flection ballot.

Coney Island is only one of several frequently mentioned locales for legal gambling houses throughout the state. Niagara falls, the Catskills resort area, the Rockaways in Queens and Long Beach on Long Island and Manhattan are Coney Island's site rivals at present. Worry about 'big time' And, on surface, everybody associated with the famed Brooklyn seaside playground wants gambling in Coney Island. But there are some voices of opposition. There are undercurrents of uneasiness.

There are those in and out of the community whoh have reservations about the side effects "big-time" gambling operations might cause in Coney Island. I The pro-casino camp In Coney Island influential and politically connected. Local Democratic party leaders and elected officials, business and property-owner organizations and Community Board 13 all favor Coney Island as a site tor casinos. They see the casinos as the Salvation of the once glittering but now tawdry community. The area's unemployment and crime problems are longstanding and well publicized.

The Brooklyn office of the City Planning Commission said the following about Coney Island last fall in Seeking a federal grant for a unified eommunity services project: 'Despite the massive public Investment in the building of Coney Island, there is a widening sense of despair antong the residents. The supporting social services are insufficient and fragmented. Instead, unemployment among local minority youths may be as high as 80, crime is rampant and racial and social tensions between whites and minorities, middle class and poor are accelerating." Consider these negative statistics concerning Coney Island: Despite a 20-year, $400 million Eublic development program construct-lg 6,500 units in high-rise apartments," Charm FrattlnlOalhr Nw Coney Island's parachute jump was once a glittering magnet for playtime crowds but Is only a rusting memory now. Island's international reputation as a playground. "Look, we have a lot of problems in Brooklyn." said Powsner.

"This could one solution. The Bronx is dead. Brooklyn's dying. Casinos would mean jobs and that is Coney Island's most desperate need. Who's opposed to casinos? I don't know.

The people want them." Another Coney Island fixture. Mat thew Kennedy, born in Norton's Point light house 75 years ago. is executive director of the Chamber of Commerce. The other day he stood on the Board walk and viewed the vacant lands of the old Washington Baths and Steeplechase sandwiching th underused Abe Stark skating rink complex "You know, you couldn't pick a better place for a hotel casino gambling operation." he said. Next: A losing bet for Coney Island.

Board of Trade, composed of local merchants and businessmen; Milton Berger, for years the old-style drumbeater for the Coney Island amusement industry, has a new client. The client is The Coney Island Amusement Area Land Owners Association with such heavy hitters as Murray Handwerker of Nathan's Famous and Dewey Albert of Astroland. the largest amusement ride operation in the area. The association stands to gain the most "if casino gambling comes to Coney Island and it is openly lobbying for it. Both Powsner and Berger tick off the advantages Coney Island offers casino operators 12 acres of vacant land at Steeplechase on the Boardwalk, accessibility via the Belt Parkway, the service of the subway network, the possibly of water-borne transportation and Coney f.

fri.X mmw" "Ty. wt -1 Charm Frttlnf Dally Nws 'Empty lot was once site of the old Steeplechase Park. Casinos could give new life to spot as an amusement area..